Maiden of Midnight

Seth

The city was still in ruins from the earthquake that had torn through it, but people were milling around the town square where small, make-shift stalls were selling food and goods for cheaper than usual. I slowly shuffled through, Mira and Emmett at either side of me. Fires still raged on the outer edges of the city but the students at the Academy were working to put them out and begin rebuilding the shattered city, while Karmona, Lamia and Tarvenia helped rebuild the Academy. Karmona brought new materials and their King and Queen worked hard with Leena to design new streets, complete with electric lighting and a new path that linked the cities directly so that trades could be easily completed. Lamia offered their strength to clear the rubble of houses and recover the dead or injured, who we were still digging up. Tarvenia was to design new gardens and Genevieve had promised stronger wards, although she never said what for. Mira was mumbling quietly to Emmett and every now and then, we would stop, glancing at the supplies on offer. One stall - a stall that sold weapons, had a dagger, a symbol carved into its hilt.

“Hey Seth, that’s scarily similar to your birth-mark!” Mira called and I picked it up. It was, in fact, it was identical!

“That’s so weird,” I muttered. The figure eight, a line straight down its middle and two smaller lines going through its side was dug deeply into the hilt- I had been born with the exact same mark on my right shoulder.

“Buy it. It’s probably fate.” Emmett grinned, punching me in the shoulder as I paid for the weapon. I tossed it in the basket, just as my head pounded, a vision of a burnt palm, soot and red marks running across it, came to mind. Along with one word: Night.

I froze, staring at the weapon as Mira and Emmett continued on, unaware I had stopped until Mira came back, shaking me.

“Hey?! Are you okay?” she asked and I lifted my head, the image fading.

“I - Yeah, I’m fine. I just… had a weird daydream.”

“Oh?”

I didn’t bother to elaborate, but continued on, my fingers reaching for the locket around my neck - the one that contained my older sister’s hair. She’d passed away in the past month, under mysterious circumstances. The others had grieved alongside me, especially Karla and Merry, who were the only people who tried the hardest to include me in things. Karla would take me out every now and then to help rebuild a house, or to Jason’s to study what he said was a growing imbalance in the Dimension.

“Seth?” Mira asked and I lifted my head again.

“Yeah?”

“Are you heading back home?” she asked gently and I ran a hand through my hair.

“I - yeah, I think I will. Tatiana and Lucifer said they wanted to talk to me about something, so I have to make sure I’m ready for them.” The soon to be newly-wed couple had been friends of my sister and had kept their promise at her death to visit every few weeks. This time, Tatiana said she had something important to tell me.

“Alright. We’ll meet you back there later,” Mira said and Emmett led her towards a stall that sold eggs, where they quickly began negotiating on a price with the stall owner. I turned away, heading back the way we came and I was about to turn onto my street when I felt a small tug at the edge of my shirt. I looked down and found that it was a pig-tailed girl.

“Excuse me?” she asked softly and I knelt down to her height. She couldn’t have been older than five or six.

“Yes?”

“Is the girl who saved me… Did she pass away? I haven’t seen her with you for a long time.”

Girl who saved her?

“You must be mistaken. I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

She stomped her foot onto the ground.

“The girl with the black hair! The one who put that mark on your shoulder! The tattoo on your right shoulder! The Night-Hunter girl! Nobody seems to remember her anymore!”

How did she know about my birth-mark?

“I’m sorry, I don’t know who you’re talking about.” Could she have meant my sister? And what was a Night-Hunter?

Her eyes filled with tears and she pointed to the locket on my neck.

“But you loved her! She told you not to forget that she loved you!” she wailed, before running off, her pigtails swinging. Before I could chase her down, Darcie came running up, and put a hand on my shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

“No. Why?”

“Lucifer and Tatiana are at the house for you. If you aren’t in the mood to see them, I can send them away.”

“No, I’ll see them,” I said, following Darcie back to the house. This house had no iron fence and we had electric light now, rather than lanterns. As Darcie unlocked the wooden front door and stepped into the carpeted foyer, I spotted Lucifer and Tatiana sitting together on a couch, their hands on each other’s knees. They rose when they saw me and Darcie left the room, stating that he was going to help Karla with the cooking. Lucifer and Tatiana’s faces were grim as I stood before them and Tatiana stepped forward. A seed of dread bloomed deep into my stomach, blossoming into a deadly flower as she said, “We have a serious problem on our hands!”